this was merely because they could not succeed in seizing the ship and the
admiral, and were therefore afraid of the consequences of what they had
already done. The admiral suppressed his resentment and thanked them for
their civil offers; and since they now proceeded according to the maritime
rules and customs, declared his readiness to satisfy them. He accordingly
shewed them the letters of their Catholic majesties directed to all their
own subjects and to those of other princes, and his own commission for the
voyage; upon which the Portuguese went on shore quite satisfied, and soon
dismissed the Spanish boat and all the seamen. From them the admiral
learnt that it was reported in the island, that the king of Portugal had
sent orders to all his subjects to secure the person of the admiral
wherever he might be found.

The admiral sailed from the island of St Mary for Spain on Sunday the
twenty-fourth of February, being still much in want of wood and ballast,
which he could not take in because of the badness of the weather; but the
wind being fair he was unwilling to make any longer delay. Being about 100
leagues from the nearest land, a swallow came on board the ship, driven
out to sea as was believed by a storm; and this was the more probable as a
great many more swallows and other land birds came onboard next day, the
twenty-eighth February, and a whale was seen. On the third of March about
midnight it blew so great a storm as to split their sails; and being in
great danger of perishing, they made a vow to send one of their number on
a pilgrimage to the shrine of _Neustra Senhora de Cintra_ at Guelva, and
the lot fell again on the admiral, shewing that his offerings were more
acceptable than those of others. While thus driving on under bare poles,
amid high winds, a raging sea, and frightful thunder and lightning, it
pleased God to give them a sight of land about midnight. But this
threatened them with new danger; and to avoid being beaten to pieces on
the rocks, or running into some unknown place whence they might not be